Ex. 7-2: Das Glück der Freundschaft

Composed in the spring or summer of 1803, to an anonymous Italian poem ("Beato quei che fido amor") with a German translation by Christoph August Tiedge (1752–1841). Beethoven set both the Italian and German texts to the same music.

The song has two titles due to a publishing mishap. It was first published in 1803 by Leschenkohl in Vienna and Simrock in Bonn under the title Das Glück der Freundschaft (The Joy of Friendship). However, the publisher introduced errors in both the title and lyrics. On 22 October 1803, Beethoven wrote to his pupil Ferdinand Ries, asking him to arrange a corrected edition with the proper title — Lebensglück (Life's Happiness) — and six corrected passages in the text.